brainsmile
01-16-2003, 12:35 PM
http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/01/16/sproject.irq.wrap/index.html
U.N.: Inspectors find empty warheads in Iraq
Chief U.N. inspector says situation 'tense, dangerous'
Thursday, January 16, 2003 Posted: 3:27 PM EST (2027 GMT)
U.N. inspectors talk with an Iraqi scientist outside his home in Baghdad on Thursday.
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- U.N. weapons inspectors Thursday found 11 empty chemical warheads and another one that needed further evaluation, all in "excellent condition," according to a U.N. spokesman.
Dimitri Perricos, leader of the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission, or UNMOVIC, team in Baghdad, said the find was "not a smoking gun" that might indicate Iraq had violated U.N. resolutions.
Inspectors also visited private homes for the first time Thursday, and the chief U.N. inspector described the situation in Iraq as "very tense and very dangerous."
An UNMOVIC team made the warhead discovery at the Ukhaider ammunition storage area, 150 kilometers (93 miles) southwest of Baghdad, where it went to inspect a large group of bunkers constructed in the late 1990s.
The chemical warheads the inspectors found were on 122 mm rockets similar to ones imported by Iraq during the late 1980s, the spokesman said.
The UNMOVIC team used portable X-ray equipment to analyze one of the warheads and collected samples for chemical testing.
Hossam Amin, head of Iraq's National Monitoring Directorate, dismissed any allegation that the find is significant, calling the material "forgotten."
"It is neither chemical, neither biological," Amin said. "It is empty warheads. It is small artillery rockets. It is expired rockets. They were forgotten without any intention to use them, because they were expired since 10 years ago."
He added that "this type of rockets were declared in 1996 and again in the new declaration."
Although the United States has long disputed Iraqi declarations that it has disarmed, the White House took a wait-and-see approach to Thursday's warhead discovery.
Before word came out about the warheads in Iraq, President Bush told an audience in Scranton, Pennsylvania, that "time is running out" for Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein to disarm. (Full story)
Diplomats at the United Nations also took a cautious stance on the finding
"We'll have to wait and see what further develops on this question. ... I'm sure the inspectors are giving this their most rapid attention possible," said U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. John Negroponte.
British Ambassador to the U.N. Jeremy Greenstock said he wanted to "hear the inspectors' report on that before I make any judgment."
Earlier, U.N. team searched homes owned by Iraqi scientists in the hunt for evidence of weapons of mass destruction. (Full story)
The homes are in the Al-Ghazaliyah district in Baghdad and were not listed as declared sites by Iraq, suggesting inspectors may have been working on an intelligence tip.
Meanwhile, Time magazine, quoting well-placed sources, reported Thursday that Saudi Arabia was pursuing a plan to engineer a U.N.-sanctioned plot for Iraqi generals to overthrow President Saddam Hussein.
A U.N. resolution would declare amnesty for most Iraqi officials if they helped with a transition of power in Baghdad, the magazine reported.
The report said that Arab diplomats believe the elite Iraqi Republican Guard would turn against Saddam and that he would not accept exile.
Blix: Iraq violated import ban
After meeting with European Union officials in Brussels, Belgium, chief U.N. inspector Hans Blix told reporters Iraq had illegally imported arms-related material as recently as 2002, but it was not clear whether the material was related to weapons of mass destruction.
Blix talks to reporters Thursday in Brussels.
"It's clear they have violated the bans of the United Nations in terms of imports," Blix said. The imported items include missile parts, CNN's Richard Roth reported.
U.S. officials reacted positively to Blix's comments.
"The evidence is mounting, and while inspectors went in with a stiff upper lip it is now more clear by the day that things are not going nearly as well as the public has been led to believe," one official said.
"We try our best to make the inspections effective," Blix said, "so that we can have a peaceful solution." But, he warned, "the other major option, as you know, is the one we've seen taking shape in the form of an armed action against Iraq."
ElBaradei: Iraq must be 'proactive'
Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, are due to visit Iraq next week ahead of their report to the U.N. Security Council on January 27. Blix has said he plans to tell Iraq to submit new weapons evidence.
ElBaradei, speaking after two days of talks with Russian officials, used the term "proactive" to describe what is required of Iraq.
"What they ought to do is come forward" to provide documents or physical evidence to support the conclusion that the country no longer has weapons of mass destruction, he said.
"This kind of proactive approach is not there. And that's why I said they need to shift gears," ElBaradei said. "As long as we can continue to go around the country and come to the conclusion, 'well we are not 100 percent sure,' this is not good enough for the Security Council."
There remains a dispute over a timetable for the inspections.
The White House wants the January 27 report from Blix and ElBaradei to be a major threshold for deciding whether Iraq is complying with the U.N. demands. Blix has cited previous U.N. resolutions and said he will report to the Security Council again in March.
A senior White House official said Thursday that "in a climate of delays, resistance and obstruction we don't see the value" in indefinitely extending the work of the inspectors.
CNN Correspondent John King and CNN Moscow Bureau Chief Jill Dougherty contributed to this report.
U.N.: Inspectors find empty warheads in Iraq
Chief U.N. inspector says situation 'tense, dangerous'
Thursday, January 16, 2003 Posted: 3:27 PM EST (2027 GMT)
U.N. inspectors talk with an Iraqi scientist outside his home in Baghdad on Thursday.
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- U.N. weapons inspectors Thursday found 11 empty chemical warheads and another one that needed further evaluation, all in "excellent condition," according to a U.N. spokesman.
Dimitri Perricos, leader of the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission, or UNMOVIC, team in Baghdad, said the find was "not a smoking gun" that might indicate Iraq had violated U.N. resolutions.
Inspectors also visited private homes for the first time Thursday, and the chief U.N. inspector described the situation in Iraq as "very tense and very dangerous."
An UNMOVIC team made the warhead discovery at the Ukhaider ammunition storage area, 150 kilometers (93 miles) southwest of Baghdad, where it went to inspect a large group of bunkers constructed in the late 1990s.
The chemical warheads the inspectors found were on 122 mm rockets similar to ones imported by Iraq during the late 1980s, the spokesman said.
The UNMOVIC team used portable X-ray equipment to analyze one of the warheads and collected samples for chemical testing.
Hossam Amin, head of Iraq's National Monitoring Directorate, dismissed any allegation that the find is significant, calling the material "forgotten."
"It is neither chemical, neither biological," Amin said. "It is empty warheads. It is small artillery rockets. It is expired rockets. They were forgotten without any intention to use them, because they were expired since 10 years ago."
He added that "this type of rockets were declared in 1996 and again in the new declaration."
Although the United States has long disputed Iraqi declarations that it has disarmed, the White House took a wait-and-see approach to Thursday's warhead discovery.
Before word came out about the warheads in Iraq, President Bush told an audience in Scranton, Pennsylvania, that "time is running out" for Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein to disarm. (Full story)
Diplomats at the United Nations also took a cautious stance on the finding
"We'll have to wait and see what further develops on this question. ... I'm sure the inspectors are giving this their most rapid attention possible," said U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. John Negroponte.
British Ambassador to the U.N. Jeremy Greenstock said he wanted to "hear the inspectors' report on that before I make any judgment."
Earlier, U.N. team searched homes owned by Iraqi scientists in the hunt for evidence of weapons of mass destruction. (Full story)
The homes are in the Al-Ghazaliyah district in Baghdad and were not listed as declared sites by Iraq, suggesting inspectors may have been working on an intelligence tip.
Meanwhile, Time magazine, quoting well-placed sources, reported Thursday that Saudi Arabia was pursuing a plan to engineer a U.N.-sanctioned plot for Iraqi generals to overthrow President Saddam Hussein.
A U.N. resolution would declare amnesty for most Iraqi officials if they helped with a transition of power in Baghdad, the magazine reported.
The report said that Arab diplomats believe the elite Iraqi Republican Guard would turn against Saddam and that he would not accept exile.
Blix: Iraq violated import ban
After meeting with European Union officials in Brussels, Belgium, chief U.N. inspector Hans Blix told reporters Iraq had illegally imported arms-related material as recently as 2002, but it was not clear whether the material was related to weapons of mass destruction.
Blix talks to reporters Thursday in Brussels.
"It's clear they have violated the bans of the United Nations in terms of imports," Blix said. The imported items include missile parts, CNN's Richard Roth reported.
U.S. officials reacted positively to Blix's comments.
"The evidence is mounting, and while inspectors went in with a stiff upper lip it is now more clear by the day that things are not going nearly as well as the public has been led to believe," one official said.
"We try our best to make the inspections effective," Blix said, "so that we can have a peaceful solution." But, he warned, "the other major option, as you know, is the one we've seen taking shape in the form of an armed action against Iraq."
ElBaradei: Iraq must be 'proactive'
Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, are due to visit Iraq next week ahead of their report to the U.N. Security Council on January 27. Blix has said he plans to tell Iraq to submit new weapons evidence.
ElBaradei, speaking after two days of talks with Russian officials, used the term "proactive" to describe what is required of Iraq.
"What they ought to do is come forward" to provide documents or physical evidence to support the conclusion that the country no longer has weapons of mass destruction, he said.
"This kind of proactive approach is not there. And that's why I said they need to shift gears," ElBaradei said. "As long as we can continue to go around the country and come to the conclusion, 'well we are not 100 percent sure,' this is not good enough for the Security Council."
There remains a dispute over a timetable for the inspections.
The White House wants the January 27 report from Blix and ElBaradei to be a major threshold for deciding whether Iraq is complying with the U.N. demands. Blix has cited previous U.N. resolutions and said he will report to the Security Council again in March.
A senior White House official said Thursday that "in a climate of delays, resistance and obstruction we don't see the value" in indefinitely extending the work of the inspectors.
CNN Correspondent John King and CNN Moscow Bureau Chief Jill Dougherty contributed to this report.